More Like Death to the Eternals, Amirite, in A.X.E.: Death to the Mutants #1

The heroic faction of the Eternals steps into the Judgment Day spotlight, dealing a decisive strike against the anti-mutant war machine in A.X.E.: Death to the Mutants #1, written by Kieron Gillen, drawn by Guiu Villanova, colored by Dijjo Lima and lettered by Travis Lanham.

Karen Charm: I don’t know about you, Mark, but I’ve been feeling really introspective lately. Just something in the air that’s making me feel like I need to examine my life and the choices I’ve made. I guess I feel a little bad being so excited about a comic called “Death to the Mutants,” even if it’s a slightly misleading title. Kind of like how a lot of Krakoan-era X-Men books were called one thing but were something else entirely (Fallen Angels, anyone?). Here we are, with what is essentially the Eternals’ title in the big Avengers-X-Men-Eternals crossover taking the Marvel Universe by storm. We’ve seen a lot of nasty Druig and Uranos in the main event book; it’s high time we check in with our Lemurian refugees, don’t you agree? It’s a bit of a doozy. 

Mark Turetsky: Just like how AvX wasn’t all-out war between the two teams, and rather about how some members of one team got evil and had to be stopped, the good Eternals are still on the side of good. And while this comic is called Death to the Mutants, it focuses on those Eternals who want to save the mutants. 

For those readers following along at home, this issue takes place over the course of A.X.E.: Judgment Day #1-2, and maybe even slightly after #2. It covers a lot of ground, so yeah, best to dive in!

A.X.E. Pop Quiz

Karen: As you say, the reading order of A.X.E. so far hasn’t been entirely linear, with various issues’ events overlapping with each other. On the one hand, it’s a very cool structure that continues to reveal new depths to shocking events when we see them from various perspectives. On the other, there has been a lot of precious page space given over to rehashing the same information (though, to be fair, we are talking about a handful of #1 issues thus far). It’s a good problem to have because it makes you so much more eager to find out what happens next. 

The Eternals fled their society because they wanted to stop being a party to genocide. Genocide has seemed to only increase since they’ve gone – first Thanos, now this – and they are resolved to do something about it. One thing that really interests me about this scene is that Ajak shows off the design of the new Celestial we saw at the end of A.X.E.: Judgment Day #2 (designed by Valerio Schiti). Given its asymmetrical, Frankensteinian qualities, I find it curious that they wanted it to look like that, rather than the form being a byproduct of its assembled parts. There’s something kind of tragically beautiful about that. Not everyone can be Jack Kirby. 

Mark: Why, oh why did they need to give it Arishem’s thumb? That seems like such an obvious tragedy they could have avoided. Just give their new god no thumbs! One thing I truly appreciate about Gillen as a writer is that he mines moments that I think a lot of cape comics would gloss over. You have a group of characters who know less than the reader at the beginning of this issue (the exiled Eternals). Instead of just having that moment where they learn what happened off page with something like, “Sersi got them up to speed” in a caption, and then moving on with the action beats, he takes the time to examine how our characters react to the news. And the moment where Phastos puts it together that, wait a minute, Ajak and Makkari have been working on this god since before the war. They warned about a war; how much did they know? It’s really finding that little extra bit of drama in characters being smart and realizing things in the moment. It puts me in mind of some of Gillen’s best work in The Wicked + The Divine, which was full of characters realizing the horrible shit their friends got up to when they weren’t looking. One thing I will say is it feels a bit messy: We saw Phastos storm off in disgust in Eve of Judgment, and here he’s still disgusted but goes along anyway. It’s a minor thing, and it’s nothing out of character, but it’s just not quite as clean as I’d like it to be.

The main Judgment Day event mini has been pretty lightning-fast with its plot, so it’s nice we get to have these moments with our old friends from Eternals. I’ve missed these messy chucklefucks.

Karen: Oh, I miss that comic book. I am happy to see them again here. Villanova continues to draw a fantastic Phastos, shown here asking very important questions about what Ajak and Makkari knew when. As longtime readers know, Ajak has been wanting to build a new space god for a while, and the current conflict is a boon to those ends. I’m very interested in seeing what kind of journey her character arc will take throughout the event.

One of the more interesting Celestial ingredients we saw mentioned in Judgment Day #2 was the one found in Lemuria, so I’m quite glad to find out more here. Not least of all because it means we get to see Kro.

Mark: The firsthand experience of a Celestial that they bring to the table is an act of terror and destruction. The Celestials are great (in the sense of the size of their deeds, not their goodness) creators; they created humankind, the Eternals and the Deviants, but here it’s “testimony from the slaughtered” (to quote from Judgment Day #2) that they gather. If one of the ingredients for your god is “wrathful vengeance and destruction,” maybe rethink things a bit? 

Kro, though. He’s great on every page he’s on. And he’s such a great foil for himboistic Ikaris. Where Kro is all snaggletoothed cunning, Ikaris is just a beautiful face, empty of any kind of guile. The two panels of Ikaris doing a Winnie-the-Pooh-style think, think, think and his “I have an idea” are just a perfect diptych, aren’t they?

Karen: It’s great comic relief, which I’ve come to rely on from Gillen’s Ikaris. It’s heightened by the incredulous faces of nearby Sprite and Kingo. Stepping back a few pages, I wanted to call out the amazing work Villanova and colorist Lima do together, showing the Eternals fending off anguished phantoms of the Deviants ground to dust by the Celestials. It’s spectacular work and possibly my favorite visual of the issue. The scary face Sprite conjures is awesome.

Mark: I’ll also call out one of my favorite visuals of the issue, and it’s just the sheer casualness with which the Eternals fly around. I think it’s that they fly with their arms down by their sides that really struck me here. It’s easy, with their human emotions and bearing, to forget that they’re nearly gods in their power. And that they use that power so casually among this population of people that they’re there to help and make amends with, it just reminds you that, as contrite as they may act, they will never fit in among the Deviants of Lemuria.

Karen: Lima makes this comic very pretty, and it’s incredibly tragic to learn of his recent passing. I had just begun to start noticing his talent, and I’m mortified to learn he was only a few years younger than I am. It always hurts to talk about these kinds of things, but I think at the very least it’s important to commend the work we’re left with. 

Metal Gear Eternal

Karen: Ikaris’ Big Idea leads the group to Gilgamesh, the Forgotten One. Last we saw of him, he was pretty devastated by the secret of Eternal resurrection since his whole thing is about protecting humans. This places him and his band of rogue agents in an accommodating position to help the others strike back against Druig.

Mark: It was interesting to read this issue back to back with X-Men #13, as it ties in … not quite seamlessly here. It turns out that before they infiltrate Olympia, Ikaris psychically contacts Jean Grey to let them know their part of the plan. I really like the use of Gilgamesh here: When you’re attacking Eternals in order to protect humans (Let’s face it, Gilgamesh probably doesn’t consider mutants to be a separate species), he’s the one you want on your side. Ikaris is an arrow, but I’ve played enough RPGs to know that arrows can be used with stealth. Glad Ikaris and company seem to have learned that lesson. It’s also fun to see the psychic attack from the Eternal side of things here. As terrible as Zuras is, I do love him telling off Druig (and subsequently getting brained by Ikaris).

Karen: I really like Zuras; it’s too bad he’s such a shit. I’ll also say that the X-Men issue did provide some helpful context as to why Ikaris’ plan actually worked. But yeah, this whole sequence is exceptionally cool. Wearing the Forgotten’s stealth suits, the Eternals raid Druig’s base and surgically remove every threat to the mutants. The X-Men can’t access Olympia? Sneak in and unlock the door. Zuras keeping Xavier occupied with psychic warfare? Ikaris ganks a piece of his uncle’s brain, leaving him alive but unable to think. Turns out Ikaris’ plan was very good.

What did you think of the newest character revealed here, Kalos the Destructor?

Mark: His design aesthetic seems pretty close to Quentin Quire’s, doesn’t it? The pink hair with the high and tight cut, the superior attitude. It’s like if Quentin took on a desk security job but still thought he was eternally (Eternally?) The Shit. I still like it, though. And it takes six Eternals to take him down!

Karen: I thought he looked like Quentin, too! So funny. 

Mark: This issue also shows just how long lead times tend to be in these big summer event comics, as we see a team of Firestar, Magik and … Wolverine (?!) coming through a portal. I guess this page was drawn before the current X-Men team was finalized. 

More Than a Little Justified

Karen: Since the beginning of this run, the Eternals have been trying to do something new and largely failing. They may finally have gotten their wish, although it can’t be what anyone was expecting. The Eternal-made Celestial looks upon the deeds of man, mutant and Eternal with one thought — “That don’t impress-a me much.” We saw this all happen dramatically in Judgment Day #2, but here we hear the call to judgment as less of a threat and more of an order. The Eternals have been given a fourth prime directive, and as we know, they have no choice but to obey. 

Gillen has had a lot of fun with the open-ended ambiguity of the original three principles — what exactly do “protect the machine” or “correct excess deviation” really mean? This new one, “YOU HAVE 24 HOURS TO JUSTIFY YOURSELVES,” is even less defined. 

Mark: Yeah, I’m still a bit unclear on it. The Celestial says they’ll be judged both individually and collectively. But is it judging collectives of the entire population of Earth? Is it going along the old divisions it created and judging humans, Eternals and Deviants as collective groups? Is the Celestial open to just killing off the Eternals or what?

Ultimately, though, in looking at this issue in the context of the Eternals series that came before it, and the event this ties into, it’s hard not to think of Gillen coming to terms with a) the privilege of growing up in a former colonial power and looking to minimize the harm one does to others, and b) looking at how far those powers will go to assert dominance over the rest of the world with ever-increasing cruelty. We all want to be Gilgamesh sneaking into the halls of power and disrupting the perpetual war, but there are enough people who will comfortably vote for Druig and shrug at the atrocities.

Karen: Great observation. Nothing in this crossover has been particularly optimistic about human society. Maybe the most pessimistic (and just plain depressing) beat is the implication that Uranos will be who the Eternals-as-a-whole will turn to next for leadership as Druig falters. It’s a sad pattern we’ve seen so many times throughout world history, and it just emphasizes what this new Celestial is judging us for. I look across the various dominos standing precariously across this storyline and shudder thinking about the emotional gamut we have yet to endure.

Essentially, I can’t blame Ikaris and Gilgamesh for the conclusion they come to, but I am intensely curious what “Death to the Eternals” is supposed to look like, knowing what we know.

Mark: It’s also pretty biblical here. This is God passing judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah, which is a sin of mistreatment of one’s guests, being a bad, hostile neighbor. It’s the coming climate disaster that we get for our leaders amassing personal power at the expense of the world around us. 

As to the “Death to the Eternals” that Ikaris burns into the wall (he really should have thought to close one of his eyes!), I kind of hope this series secretly switches its title to that for future issues. As for the feasibility of it, maybe our new Celestial friend might help out with it. I wonder if we’ll see Sprite wearing a “Gilgamesh was Right” T-shirt at some point.

Karen: I’m still waiting for the “All the Best Eternals Are Deviants” shirt to show up.

The Judgment Day event continues to be thrilling in its scope and fascinating in its structure. I never know what to expect next, and all I can do is hope that the characters I care most about survive the experience in some fashion.

Mark: All I know is that the future contains Eros, and that’s an intriguing thing.

Last Words

• With The Machine making references to The Princess Bride (“This is not the kissing kind of story”) and A Clockwork Orange (“Druig’s Droogs”), has the world become more terminally online since the start of the Eternals relaunch, or is it just me?
• I think that the Earth Machine is literally just Kieron Gillen. A shocking reveal, to say the least. (Also, putting on my clown face paint over the fact that the RPG analogy did help me understand better the point he was making.)
• Happy to see the Delphan Brothers make their return as dumb thugs.
• There was a moment, as I was reading Sersi and Ajak talk about their individual plans, where I thought, “Does this remind me of Onslaught?” I’m not quite sure what that means, but I don’t think it’s a bad thing. 
• Phastos brings the Celestial to life by whacking it with a hammer. Don’t worry, it’s a superpowerful tech hammer that’s doing important nano-transatomic work.
• Is that a Ghostbusters trap Sersi is using in the Lemuria scene? [KC]
• Oh wow, it really does look like one, doesn’t it? [MT]

Karen Charm

Karen Charm is a cartoonist and mutant separatist, though they’ve been known to appreciate an Eternal or two.

Mark Turetsky

Mark Turetsky is an audiobook narrator and voice actor who sometimes writes about comic books. Originally from Montreal, Canada, he now lives in Northern Louisiana.